Those Damned Traditions

When the Traditions were first printed, most groups did not want them, and the only groups that listened were the ones already in trouble. Bill W. wrote (A.A. Comes of Age): "When first published the Traditions got a mixed reception. Only groups in dire trouble took them seriously." The angriest objections came from groups with long lists of protective rules. The rest were bored. Bill went around speaking on them, and the letters came back asking him to tell his drinking story instead: "But please don't talk any more about those damned Traditions." So the groups that learned the Traditions first learned them the hard way, in the middle of trouble. Then the rest caught up: "Several years later it was recognized that the Twelve Traditions were going to be just as necessary to the life of our society" as the Steps were to each member. A group that waits for trouble before it reads Tradition One reads it too late, with half the room already gone. The Long Form (Big Book, p. 563) is four sentences long and can be read in under a minute. Today the Traditions are still the part people skip: rushed through at the top of the meeting, or not read at all. Test it tonight: ask your group when it last spent a business meeting on one Tradition, from start to finish.